Discussions

In a world where people are free, these questions of scarcity and abundance are sorted out in the marketplace.

Well, it's sort of an over-generalization to say something like that. I mean, is there really any such thing as a "free market", or a "free person" for that matter?

Those are kind of some deep questions, worth thinking about, but getting back to the mundane subject of poly(ethyene terephthalate) ...

You say you have an abundance of waste PET plastic bottles.

You say you have scarcity (lack of abundance) of PET fabric.

So perhaps an opportunity exists to make PET fabric from used PET bottles?

The answer to the question of why nobody is taking advantage of this opportunity (PET fabric from used PET bottles) is probably a matter of economy; i.e. How much profit can be made doing this?

DU35 says your premise is false. In other words, there are already factories in India making used PET bottles into PET fiber and fabric. These already exist.

But maybe they are not well known. If they were, maybe you'd sell, or freely give, them your plastic bottles. Amirite?

In the event used-PET-bottles-into-new-PET-fabric is not a popular practice, I suspect, the reason for this is, for factories making PET fabric, the cost difference between virgin PET, made from BTX petrochemicals, and recycled PET, made from used bottles, the cost difference is not large. I also suspect virgin PET is better quality, with fewer impurities.

I also suspect the, price difference between raw PET and the PET in finished PET fabric, or clothing, is huge.

Actually, these are numbers you can calculate yourself. You can weigh a finished shirt, or bolt of fabric, multiply by the mass fraction that is PET fiber. Divide the cost of the finished good by the weight (mass) of PET it contains, to get an answer in USD/gram, or INR/gram. Then compare that number to the cost of raw virgin PET granules.

The cost per gram for used PET bottles, you already know that's zero, or close to zero. Amirite?

How much does it cost to convert used PET bottles into something approximating virgin PET granules?

Just saying, the answer to this mystery might be found in closer examination of the numbers.